Toki o Kakeru Kizuna
Toki o Kakeru Kizuna (時をかける絆) is the 32nd episode of Crush Gear Turbo. It was originally aired in Japan on May 12, 2002. Synopsis In this episode, Kuroudo reveals that he used to own Shooting Mirage along with his friends in France and that the said Gear has wooden wheels. Plot The episode begins with Lilika talking to her mother on the phone regarding the former's father. Then, it shows Kouya dreaming of meeting the caped man at a barren land during nighttime. The caped man turns out to be Yuhya who is "alive" and evil, and tells Kouya to taste his pain in a flaming background before Black Garuda Eagle is launched towards him. Kouya then screams and so is Jirou. Kaoru overhears the two and asks if they are both alright. Both Kouya and Jirou scream again, with the latter shouts "Red bean buns!" twice. The two are being hit by a yellow tub in their heads by Kaoru. Kouya tells Kaoru he dreamt that his brother is still alive. Jirou suggests him to focus on the Asia Cup rather than weird things in his mind. As Kaoru is asked about the thing in the pocket of her jacket, she replies that she has received a letter for Kuroudo from France. Later, Kouya, Jirou and Kaoru go to Kuroudo who is meditating at the hotel's rooftop. When Kuroudo receives the letter, it reads "Please take care of our Shooting Mirage" as well as wishing him the best in the Asia Cup. Kuroudo then tells his teammates about his early childhood in France and how he obtained Shooting Mirage. It begins with Kuroudo playing with his friends at a courtyard until one of them kicked the ball a little too far. As soon as Kuroudo went to fetch the ball, a rich boy, Ritchie flattened it with his foot and started claiming the courtyard (which was the children's playing area) as his. Kuroudo tried to stop him, in which his actions were followed by a girl, Francois. After Ritchie embarassed Francois, Kuroudo took a stick and challenged him. Ritchie was not interested in Kuroudo's dare and challenged the children to have a Gear Fight with him instead. Kuroudo accepted his challenge despite the fact that he and his friends did not have a real Crush Gear and could not afford one. Kuroudo decided to find a Gear for the duel, in which his friends agreed. They went to a toy shop and asked the people at the street, but to no avail. That evening, Francois told Kuroudo and others about a dealer that was willing to sell a Crush Gear at an affordable price. Kuroudo and his friends then went to the dealer's place where the latter showed a Gear that lacked wheels. The dealer explained how the Gear survived in the sinking of Titanic and the Hindenburg disaster, in which the children believed his claims. Kuroudo and his friends pleaded the dealer to sell the Crush Gear to them, and the dealer agreed. Kuroudo was assigned for cleaning the Gear while each of his friends were given a round wood to be carved into its wheels. All the children were giving their efforts to make the Gear look complete. The next day, Kuroudo was about to do battle against Ritchie and the former's friends gave the wheels that they made for the Gear. Kuroudo was touched to see that their fingers were bandaged due to carving the wheels. The battle between him and Ritchie started before the scene changes to the present day where Kouya is amazed by Kuroudo's story. After that, Kaoru is skeptical about the dealer's claims before Kouya leaves due to disagreement with her. The semifinals of the Asia Cup is about to begin where the Tobita Club faces the Si Xing Hu Tuan team. The match starts with Lan Fang and Jirou, but Kyousuke asks why he is not the one to step in the ring. Jirou says that the Gear Master will be distracted because of his infatuation. However Lilika wishes Jirou luck as he walks to the ring, causing him to be infatuated as well. During the match, he casts Hurricane Crush but Tiger Flare goes down the hurricane. Lilika comments that the movement of Lan Fang and her Gear are similar to that of The Lady White Snake, a Chinese legend. Kyousuke starts to admire Lan Fang after hearing Lilika's words. The scene cuts to the third round where the match ends in a draw. Kyousuke smiles due to his infatuation towards Lan Fang, to Jirou's chagrin. The next match will be Kuroudo competing against Ma Liang. At the start of the match, Kuroudo launches Lightning Flash but Tiger Commander slides its VT Chassis to the back and blocks Shooting Mirage's attack. He uses Spinning Tornado, however his Gear takes the damage and is sent to the air. Kuroudo tries to use the special move again but thanks to Tiger Commander's VT Chassis technology, the Gear is able to dodge Shooting Mirage. The first round then ends in a time-out. Before the second round, Kuroudo equips the wooden wheels to his Gear which makes his teammates wonder what he is doing. Shooting Mirage's wooden wheels make a sound and cause the Gear to wobble during the duel. Ma Liang starts to worry after seeing Kuroudo smiling confidently. The second round ends in a draw. As the third round starts, Shooting Mirage and Tiger Commander are seen circling in the ring. Disco Stu commented that it's like seeing a game of chess. Later, there is only one minute remaining during the third round, Ming Wu tells Lan Fang a story about the events that happened during the Three Kingdoms period (see Trivia section). As Kuroudo's Gear moves forward, the scene cuts to the battle between Kuroudo and Ritchie where Shooting Mirage was attacked by Ritchie's Gear. Kuroudo had his trust in his friends, and Shooting Mirage started to create its own shadow duplicates and pushed Ritchie's Gear persistently. It then shifts to the present battle where Shooting Mirage does the same thing to Tiger Commander. Kuroudo shouts his last cry (more in the "Trivia" section) before an explosion occurs. Ritchie's Gear (in a flashback) and Tiger Commander are thrown out of the ring. The match ends with Ma Liang saying that Kuroudo's technique was impossible, or rather Tiger Commander cannot be defeated by a Gear without VT Chassis. Kuroudo sees the wooden wheels being shattered onto his hand before thanking his childhood friends way back in France. Trivia *This episode mainly focuses on two characters, Kouya and Kuroudo **Kouya's part focuses only at the beginning of the episode (his dream about his brother) **Kuroudo's part starts from how Kaoru receives the letter until the end of the episode *This is one of the two episodes in the anime that begins with a phone conversation. The other being episode 53, where Kouya called his mother after he returned to the Tobita Club * At the start of the episode, Yuhya says in Kouya's dream "I want you to taste my pain" in the English dub. This is probably a reference of episode 22 after Kouya failed to protect Garuda Eagle by disintegrating it to pieces. * The title of the red book owned by Kuroudo has a reference to the Three Kingdoms. * There are several resemblances of the present-day Crush Gear Turbo characters during Kuroudo's life in France. For instance, the doll in the toy shop had the hairstyle similar to Lilika's. One of the persons encountered by Kuroudo's old friends at the street had the appearance of the Takoyama brothers. * The sinking of Titanic and the Hindenburg disaster happened in 1912 and 1937 respectively, while Crush Gear was invented ten years before the anime's storyline (i.e. in 2002). Therefore Kaoru's doubts about the dealer's claims is founded. * This is the first time Kyousuke becomes infatuated with Lan Fang. *The story that Ming Wu tells to Lan Fang about the events that happened during the Three Kingdoms Period is called "The Empty Castle" by strategist Kongming (Zhuge Liang) **During the Three Kingdoms Period, Kongming knew that his army is no match against the enemy, so he ordered his soldiers to open the castle gates and start singing. When the enemy soldiers saw this, they misinterpreted it as Kongming's army of 100 soldiers waiting for him inside the castle, which made the enemy soldiers retreat. * It is revealed in this episode that Kuroudo can speak French fluently. His last cry in his match against Ma Liang is "Ôte-toi de mon soleil! Aller, Shooting Mirage!" which roughly means "Get out of my sun! Go, Shooting Mirage!" in French. ** The episode shows the captions of Kuroudo's French words mentioned above except for "Aller, Shooting Mirage". Category:Episodes (Crush Gear Turbo)